Opponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act, the bill that threatens to block large swathes of foreign websites for alleged copyright infringement, have complained that Congress has yet to hear their voice. In the initial hearing and markup of the bill in Congress, the only outside critic of the bill invited as a witness was Google, whose opposition to the act was largely dismissed as an isolated exception.
Now, it seems, the tech industryâs SOPA haters will have their day. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced Monday that it will hold a hearing on SOPA on January 18th. Among the invited guests are Alexis Ohanian, a founder of Reddit.com, Dan Kaminsky, a well-known security researcher who has worked on security issues in the Domain Name System, and Lanham Napier, the chief executive of Rackspace Hosting. All, with various arguments, have spoken out strongly against the bill.